Listing Sites Vs Online Agents – What’s the Difference with Nina Jervis-Green, Host Unusual

You're listening to Get Fully Booked with Sarah Orchard. Are you ready to master your marketing so you can ditch your reliance on the online agents and grow your direct bookings?

I'll be sharing with you exactly what it takes to grow your direct bookings and the simple marketing steps to get more profit in your pocket. Hello there and welcome to another episode of the Get Fully Booked podcast. I'm your host, Sarah Orchard.

I'm delighted to welcome a guest to the podcast today, Nina Jervis Green from Host Unusual.

Many of you will have have come across Host Unusual before, but for those of you who haven't, Host Unusual is a hand picked directory featuring the most unusual and exciting holiday accommodation in the UK and across the globe.

In fact, Nina is so dedicated to finding the most unusual places to stay that she even spent her recent hen do and honeymoon staying in Host Unusual properties. And we were thrilled that Nina chose our very own Hudnall's Hideout for her honeymoon. But that's not the reason I invited Nina onto the podcast.

I invited her to explain the major differences between directory or advertising sites and using an online agent like Airbnb. When I'm discussing different marketing options with my clients, this is an area where I see a real lack of awareness.

So it got me thinking that actually it would be brilliant to get Nina onto the podcast so that we could hear all about it directly from the horse's mouth. Welcome to the podcast, Nina.

Hi, Sarah. Thank you for having me on. It's a pleasure to be here.

Yeah, it's really good to have you here today. And as I said, I was thrilled and felt a little bit nervous that you actually picked the Hideout to come for your honeymoon.

I felt under some pressure there because of all of the amazing places that are actually listed on Host Unusual. And we were very flattered that you picked the Hideout and come and stay with us for such a special occasion.

Well, I write all the listings for Host Unusual and as soon as I wrote yours, I had in the back of my mind, I have to stay here at some point. It's incredible. And then when we got engaged, we were choosing a place for our honeymoon. I mean, I use Host Unusual for all my, as you pointed out in your introduction, all my holidays are booked via Host Unusual and all their properties because I genuinely love them. And yeah, it was a no brainer really that we'd come and stay at your beautiful Hudnall's Hideout. It was absolutely incredible.

And I have to say thank you for making our honeymoon so special.

So should we start really with the sort of first things first, maybe a little bit more about, we've given a bit of a flavour there of Host Unusual, but tell us a little bit more about like how it started and you know, how many properties you've got and just a bit more background. Because obviously listeners who are not just based in the UK, based all over the world and they may not be familiar with Host Unusual, of course.

And it's just the three of us, so we list, I think just under 2,000 properties. They cover both the UK and around the world.

So anywhere that you want to go, you can tend to sort of come on, Host Unusual and find somewhere unique to stay. And you know, it's not just about guiding people towards the unique places to stay, but it's about telling their stories as well.

So each of our listings is quite detailed. We sort of pride ourselves on the originality of the copy because each listing is original.

We take information from the owner and their sites to really introduce them to people.

So that when you're browsing our site it's made for kind of staying on, getting yourself a cup of coffee or a glass of wine and just spending quite a lot of time sort of browsing with different unusual places to stay.

And we hope it's a pleasure to sort of have a look at really a bit like having a bit of a treat really, sort of going through finding all these different places to stay.

I don't know how you would get any other work done just sitting and like, obviously you're writing all the listings yourself, to sit and look at all these beautiful and sometimes very unusual properties to stay in. I think I'd be making my wish list of not getting any work done at all.

And I think it's because I do spend quite a lot of time doing the research. I feel like I know them and I feel like I know the owners before I've even come. There's a lovely, warm feeling about them.

And some of the property owners have said to me as well, when I have visited or sometimes when we've emailed, they've kind of said that the guests that they have from Host Unusual, they seem to be a bit more kind of attentive and thoughtful and then they seem to sort of know the story already.

So it's kind of like people that read our listings tend to really get involved and they book places that they genuinely seem to love and want to find out more about.

I think you've touched on a really good point there because actually, when we're independent businesses, which probably literally all of the properties that list with you, actually it is about sometimes the story of how these amazing places were created and the motivation of the people behind the business, and we often forget to share that story.

And I think you do a very good job of telling people and really helping them to connect, because that's what good marketing is, isn't it, making that connection?

Yeah, absolutely, yeah. I mean, we have.

I mean, we have some of our property owners kind of say that they've been told in the past not to go on too long about certain aspects of the retreat because it's a bit boring. So we've got one that's absolutely incredible. It's in Scotland and it's land that used to be owned by Robert the Bruce.

And it's incredibly like, it's so steeped in history. And there's an amazing coat of arms as you're going in, and the lady that owns that was kind of, Oh, we're always told not to go on about the history too much because the place. No, you need to make it. It's a massive part of why people would come. Yeah, you want to get under the skin of it.

And a lot of the guests that come, that's exactly what they're looking for.

And how do we stand out from, like you say, there's so many sort of hotels and, well, now there's so many accommodations, choices of, and everything that's on like Airbnb and, booking.com, how do you stand out? And actually telling your story is really important.

So for the listeners today, obviously people get, as I said, and I started at the beginning of the, of the podcast, saying that I see this a lot when I'm talking to clients about sort of their marketing strategy and what marketing options are open to them. They just get very.

There's like a grey sort of muddy line between an online agent like an Airbnb or Booking.com and obviously there's lots of online agents and advertising, listing, directory sites, because they do get referred to in lots of different terms. So for you, what's the major difference between something like Host Unusual and maybe an online travel agent like Airbnb?

Well, I think the main difference is that agency sites and agencies, they handle bookings and they tend to be commission based.

So if you're booking through, an agency site, then you'll expect to book through them and you'll expect them to also take a cut of or apply a fee to that. Whereas what we do and other listing sites is we promote your own direct bookings. So we refer people.

It's almost like we're gently nudging people in your direction as opposed to kind of handling the booking and taking the money. And we try to offer sort of a more personalised approach as well. So we, we kind of, there's a lot of interactivity with each of our listings.

So people can add their own special offers, they can change the images that they have. We do a lot of promotion in the form of blog posts where we have categories that we kind of showcase.

So for example, with Christmas coming up, we put a call out to our property owners and say, have you got any availability for Christmas you'd like us to tell people about?

So it's kind of like gently nudging people in the direction of the properties that we have and then saying, if you're interested, here's a link to their site and you can complete the booking process on their own site. And we don't charge commission for that. So there's a flat fee that you would pay. But you only pay that. There's nothing else.

We don't take a cut of any bookings or anything like that.

Yeah.

So I suppose from the owner's point of view, I suppose when they look at an online agent, they think, well, I only pay commission if I get the booking.

But if you're committed to getting your direct bookings and you just pay one flat fee, and that's what we do, we take 100% direct bookings and we have done since the beginning with the Hideout. And we obviously pay listing fees and. But we don't pay any commission. And I think I did work out in the first three years.

I wasn't using Airbnb, but using another sort of specialist glamping agent. And all of those charge somewhere between 20 and 25% commission normally, plus VAT as well.

So it gets a little bit chunky in terms of what you end up paying. But I worked out it would have cost us £65,000 in three years in commission. So I definitely didn't spend that. I think in the first year I spent, in the first three years, I spent about £9,000 on marketing.

So actually when you compare the difference in terms of how much you can save, if you are looking at maybe listings and doing your own marketing versus relying on an agent, it can be a significant amount of money back onto your bottom line.

And I guess it depends on how much work you want to put in yourself as well.

Exactly.

It's kind of like if you might think to yourself, I want. I'd rather just leave it to somebody to do that for me, and I don't mind paying them.

But a lot of our property owners, as you've just said about your own approach, they're quite hands on and they, they want to manage that themselves. And listing sites like ours actually help them do that. And we offer. So when you join us, you get given a guide.

So, like, how to make the most of your listing. And, you know, for the people that do that work, as you said, the rewards can be amazing.

Yeah. And I think it's always weighing up. And I always say this. I'm never somebody who really like, disses the online travel agents.

I know sometimes they get a bit of flack from, from people in our industry, but ultimately it's a, it's a choice as an owner, whether you've got. And it does take time to do your marketing and sometimes you're learning skills as well that you maybe don't have.

Naturally, you know, not all of us are you know, I've worked in marketing for 30 years, but not everyone is a marketer, just as not everyone's a writer like yourself, Nina. So I think we have to learn new skills if we're going to, market our own businesses.

And it's always weighing up that time and your willingness and some of it is also your motivation and willingness to do it. And some people, I mean, I've got a lot of club members now who actually came in thinking I hate my marketing.

And actually, having been in my membership, they're actually now, I love doing my marketing because they actually think about it differently and they can see the results that they're getting. And obviously that's the very rewarding aspect of it when you start to see the direct bookings, flowing in.

And we do, we do offer marketing help. So obviously, like I said, we write original listings.

And so there's a few property owners who haven't really known how to talk about their properties. I sort of have a look through their site and I come up with something.

I'm not saying it's me, but anyone that would do that, from a copywriting point of view, it can help you talk about your business and see it in a different light. We do regular promotion with our blogs and we know there's a regular newsletter. And also we share people's social media posts.

We just ask that they tag us. You know, we'll happily share that with our followers. We've got a burgeoning number of followers on all the social media channels.

So, you know, we can actually give people a leg up with their marketing as well for just that one flat fee, which we like to think is good value for money.

I think it's great value for money. I know what I'd prefer compared to the £65,000 that I might have paid an agent. But I think that's the key thing.

You're really amplifying the marketing efforts that the owner is doing themselves. So, you still need your own direct booking website.

You still need to do your own, you can't necessarily put your feet up and just go, that's fine Host Unusual are doing all my marketing for me.

However, obviously what we're doing is we're tapping in to your website traffic, all those people that you're working really hard to bring to your website.

And also, like you say, I know you're very generous with your social media activity and I often tag you and you always very kindly, share the content. And that really helps just to, amplify your own marketing activity and efforts. And I see it very much like it's a partnership.

You know, ultimately we pay a fee. But you're really supportive, I think, to your, to your owners.

Thank you. We like, we like to, I mean, that's, I mean, we don't just do it.

I mean, obviously every business is run, you know, for profit in a way, but for us, it's really not just about that. We genuinely, you know, care about having a relationship with everybody that we work with and showcasing their properties in the best possible light.

It's why we do what we do, that we are genuinely passionate about that.

And yeah, so it's, we do have some owners that sort of come on board and think they, they can just sit back and we'll do everything and we'll do as much as we can, but it's never as rewarding. You'll never get the same results unless you actually, you know, sort of do a bit of that, that work yourself as well.

But most, you know, that's what most people do.

And you, because you're obviously a more visible, bigger brand within our sort of sector. I know personally from being an owner that's listed with you that actually you bring in as well.

So I know, I see the owner emails that go out. You know, sometimes there's media opportunities, there's call outs for promotions or PR opportunities.

Like you say you, you do promote sort of when we've got availability and special offers and you have themes as well.

So if it's particular seasonal, like you say, with your blog content, and I know for a fact that because we've been on television, I think a lot of the TV production companies, they use the directory listing sites as a sort of a database of suitable properties that they will scour and scout. And I know you've had a lot of, a lot of your owners have been featured on television.

I know you've got a blog post just about that because there's so many now that have been picked up.

And so there's lots of plus points, not just the, getting you in front of potential guests, there's all these other sort of media and PR opportunities as well.

Absolutely.

So, you know, we've, yes, we have recommended properties and we've put them forward for programs like Gone Fishing, George Clark's Amazing Spaces, all those kinds of extraordinary escapes, as you know.

Yes. That we were on.

And. Yeah, I think.

And that's, you know, that sort of brings us on, I guess, to why it's a good option for an unusual property to sort of list with a directory like ours is because, you know, that's where people go when they're looking for an unusual place to stay. So if you've got an unusual place to stay, it's better, it can be better to be listed on a site like ours because it could be that you all you know is that you want to stay somewhere unusual, but you don't really know what type of things are out there.

I mean, for example, we've recently listed a glamping site that's supposed to make you feel like you're on a film set. So it's been designed by people with experience designing props for film sets and tv. So they're. That's what they do. And they've created this glamping site where it feels like you're in this dystopian world. And it's an incredible.

But you wouldn't necessarily Google that. You would be. I mean, it's somewhere that you'd maybe love to learn more about, but you don't really know it exists.

And that's what our site is good for, kind of pointing people towards things that they may not even know they'd like to do and see.

Giving you that visibility, isn't it? Because, like you say, no one would go onto a search engine and type that in because it's not even on their radar that exists.

So do you have to be like a glamping, really quirky sort of type of business to. To list with you, or do you have like a whole range? What types of businesses and accommodation businesses do you have on the site?

We've got so many and they really range. So, yes, we do. We have a lot of glamping sites and lots of upcycled places and properties that have been converted.

So we've got things like converted helicopters, buses, boats. We've got a private jet that used to belong to some of the richest people in the world.

And it's sort of going on there is almost like walking onto the set of Dynasty or Dallas back in the 80s. It's all opulent and over the top.

We've got some places that are so luxurious that they, you know, they rival places like the Ritz in terms of just absolute luxury. I mean, I think as well, you know, sort of mentioning things that you might not know exist.

But I think your wonderful tree house as well, that might be that people are thinking, well, if I stay in a tree house, it's going to be. I'm going to have to rough it because it's, it's in the woods and I'm going to have to, I'm not gonna have a proper toilet, for example.

It's all that kind of thing.

And they might be pleasantly surprised to come onto a site like ours and see that actually you can stay in a treehouse and actually have levels of luxury that you would not dream of, that you wouldn't have thought about. So it's not just. I mean, we've certainly got sort of quite a lot of retreats that are off grid.

So if for people that really want to get away from it or they want to leave, they want to turn the phone off and not have anything to do with that. And that's actually what I loved about Hudnall's Hideout, actually.

It was a wonderful excuse to turn the phone off and just not have to engage with the digital world at all.

There was no WiFi. We made a very conscious. Absolutely no WiFi.

And actually several guests say they put their phone into like, airplane mode and just completely slipped off.

I felt there was no point having it, didn't want it. I mean, I just left it in my bag the whole time and it was absolutely wonderful.

But we have places that are off grid as well, you know, and so there's no electricity and you really are living that to basics. And then we've got places that are just like, palatial. We've got private islands, for example.

Wow.

And estates and massive, feels like you're living in the set of Bridgerton or somewhere like that. We've got. So it's, it's kind of like you can have any level of luxury you want. Any. Like, we've got large group stays, we've got our categories. Categories kind of narrow down as well, the type of stay that you might be looking for. So if you're planning a hen party, for example, we've kind of gathered together all the places that would be great for that. And so my own hen party.

I know you mentioned at the beginning that I'd planned a host unusual hen party and that was in a house in Brighton that's themed as Alice in Wonderland.

Oh, I've seen that one. That looks amazing. I need an excuse for a party to go there.

Well, again, when I got engaged, I thought, right, I'm having my hen. This house. I'm having my, you know, I already had it all worked out where I was going to spend my time. But it's, but yeah, so it's, it's.

You don't have to as, as a holiday maker yourself, there's not a lot of work you've really got to do apart from narrowing down the options, but you could really have pretty much anything, from living in the woods, completely off grid to living in a place that's like, like I say you're living on the set of Bridgerton or something. Like it really depends on what you're looking for. But we've pretty much got it, I have to say. Like it's, and it's just an unusual.

Twist so that you so obviously your categories, like you were saying, so I presume things like groups, dog friendly couples, families, you sort of, you're not, you're not just only because, I mean there's obviously, you know, and I think actually they're more of an agent but like, like Mr. And Mrs. Smith, which very much more like that couples sort of, breaks rather than like family breaks.

So it sounds like, you cover lots of bases and actually are there any types of properties that you preclude and wouldn't list? So like I presume, like hotel, if they were a big hotel, they wouldn't necessarily list with you?

No. And we do, we don't say yes to everybody. Actually we're quite discerning that the property does have to be unusual.

I mean it does have to be like a bit of a talking point and it does have to stand out and it has to fit into one of the categories that we have on the site and we'll make that or if somebody asks to join us, we'll have a look and see what category we think it would sit in. If it doesn't sit in any of them, we'll politely sort of go back to them and say that we don't.

Because actually, you know, we don't want to showcase a property on our site and take somebody's money if we don't actually feel that they're going to get bookings through us. Like the people that come and use our site, they are looking for places to stay that are really out of the ordinary.

And so if we don't feel that that would be value for money for them, why, you know, why would we list them? And it's, it's kind of, it's not just a question of having as many properties as we can get. It's Absolutely.

Making sure that they are the right fit for our site and, and for the, you know, why people come to, to use our site, they're looking for, they're looking for somewhere really different.

And like you said at the beginning, actually I think before we hit sort of record.

That doesn't necessarily mean that you have to, because we've given some examples of like, very high end luxury or like building, a tree house in the middle of the woods or, something that's like a helicopter. But you mentioned about, sometimes it's about the story and we did touch on that at the beginning.

So it might not be that your accommodation is wacky or super opulent, but it may just have a very, it might be an interesting, like, use, I presume, of the building before. It's got like a really interesting backstory.

So you might be sitting there as an owner thinking, well, I haven't got anything particularly exciting about my property.

And then as you said, you've revealed like a place that's like the most haunted place in the UK, you mentioned to me before we started hitting record. So actually it could be something or someone famous lived there, you know, it could just be. And then therefore you've reflected.

And I think that's why it's really important as an owner to think about not being vanilla like everyone else and thinking about are there elements of your experience and your story that you can pull through into your accommodation so that it like lives and breathes across the styling and the experience that the guests have that then does make you unusual and makes you stand out.

Totally.

I mean, we've got one place actually, the one that springs to mind is that it's a, it's a woodland retreat, but they also offer creative blacksmithing courses.

Wow.

So you can go and stay there and you can learn how to, how to become, you know, how to make your own. I mean, I don't know what you. All I'm thinking is horses, hooves. But I know you can do more than that with blacksmiths.

You can make a lot of different things, but actually you could also relieve a lot of stress just by hitting metal, couldn't you? Exactly.

And the place that you do it in is like an 18th century barn that was always used for blacksmithing. So that's a really unusual thing to be doing. And you're being taught by the lady that runs.

She's been on TV teaching blacksmithing. And so it's kind of, it's that kind of thing, like so it may not be that the property itself is that unusual, but only sometimes it is.

But it's also what you can experience with a stay there as well. We've got another place where you can. It's a bake house. So, and it's an old, you know, so you can go and stay there, but you can also learn to bake intricate breads and cakes and things like that. And so you could come away with a new skill as well. I mean, a lot of our woodland retreats offer bushcraft skills or foraging.

And I know that you do that. You can go on a guided foraging and it's kind of what you come away with and it's what you can experience. And it's.

I guess it's about making memories, really, which is obviously something that I did when I came to stay with you. We, you know, we had the private chef experience, we had yoga on the deck and it was absolutely incredible.

I think that's the thing as well. Post Covid, people are seeking more experiences. It's like, you know, people.

We've realised that, we can have lots of, we can buy lots of stuff. But ultimately people are seeking experiences and memories and they're also, I think, quite receptive to sort of pushing their own probably boundaries in terms of the types of places that you stay. I had a classic example the other day.

Whereas actually one of the artists who we sell her work, you probably saw in the Lookout Bar, I bought some of her cards. Yes, well, Sarah Delahoy, who's the artist, she goes away with her husband for her anniversary and she said to me, she said, we always stay in hotels, but we've decided we've fed up with that and we want to stay somewhere different. And she was like, I know who to speak to, I'm going to speak to you. Because, you know, all these, like, really different. She should have actually come and spoken to you, Nina, because, you know, even more than I do. But she said, where can we stay?

And I actually recommended a couple of my club members and she actually went and stayed with one of my club members in her cabin in Wales and she came back and she said, you know what? I'm never going to stay in a hotel again. We're definitely going to do this every time it's our anniversary. So she's now a convert to staying in this.

Had an outdoor bath on the deck and, she's just a complete convert now to not staying in a classic sort of hotel and actually going and staying somewhere unusual. So once you've done it, once you become a convert.

Yeah, I mean I absolutely, I wouldn't go back.

I wouldn't go back either and I do busman's holidays. It's, it's quite addictive. And I have almost like a little list of places that, you know, I like stayed in.

Airstream, it was like that was on a roof of a hotel in Bristol. It was like, you know, I actually like ticking off, ticking off the, like the little list of the places that we've stayed in.

It just, it just is a, you know, it's so lovely as well to look back at the pictures and the memories of that time and just, I think you're just taken straight back there, aren't you? If you're in a hotel room, it could be, it could almost be anywhere.

Not that hotels don't have their place, of course, but it's not the same as looking back on, you know, staying somewhere unusual with a story, somewhere you can kind of get under the skin of. It's, it's something that you, you keep talking about referring to for years after.

So if I think we've sort of touched on, I was going to ask you about, like, how does an owner pick which listing site to go with? And I think you've touched on it a little bit in that obviously you vet the properties that you, you list.

But do you have questions that you think owners should consider when they're thinking about which advertising or listing site to go with?

Well, I think it's obviously checking that the, the site they're looking for showcases the same type of property that they have and whether it would fit in with what they have at the moment. Does it. What sort of people tend to book and you know, what sort of traffic do they have?

They might look at what level of support they'll get from the company because we've talked about whether you like to be hands on with your own marketing or leave it to them. So I think as a property owner it would be, well, what would you be doing like for that listing fee?

You know, so would you be sharing my social media posts? Would you be kind of featuring us, that kind of thing? Yeah, and also, you know, so we support the family holiday charity, for example.

Like what are the values of that particular site and do they fit with yours? Do they support any charities?

Is it, is it kind of, you know, is it, are they committed to sort of other sort of social enterprise work or anything like that? That might not be a priority, but it can be.

You know, we've had people get in touch and sort of say that they like the fact that we support family holiday charity, for example. It's one of the reasons why they chose to go with us. And. Yeah, so it just. Does it sort of fit with your values?

Does what they have on the site currently sort of fit with what you're offering? And what, what will you get for the listing fee? I suppose, yeah. I think the work that you're putting.

In yourself, that's a really important question. And one of the things that, I mean, you've.

You mentioned at the, at the top of the sort of interview about the fact that you rewrite, you know, you write the listings as well. And I think as a marketer, not many people are aware of this, but obviously one of the dangers are duplicate content that Google obviously hates.

And people won't realise that if someone just takes the copy that you've got and if you're an owner and you're asked to submit a sort of a listing, never take just the copy of your website and put it onto the listing site because the listing site will have a better Google ranking, it'll have more traffic, and therefore that will appear in the listings above your business.

So one of the things that I know you guys at Host Unusual work really hard at, not only to tell the story of the properties, but to make sure that that content about, say, like our Hideout is totally different to what's on our website.

So you're not hijacking our traffic and competing with us, you're just actually giving us another opportunity to appear in the search results rather than actually going head to head with us.

No, we pride ourselves on the originality of our list, each listing.

And although when I'm preparing a listing, I will obviously use the website as a guide, I would never copy anything that's used on the site itself or any other listing site for that matter. It's just not something that we would do.

And we're always quite like, when we send the listing over for approval, we always say, please do not use this copy on your website again because it just hampers your search results and it just causes conflict with that. And so, yeah, we absolutely pride ourselves on that originality.

Yeah. And I think a lot of owners don't realise the dangers of that and how it can be competing. And actually that's one of the downsides.

And I'll talk about that probably in another episode about online agents is that often they are actually. Rather than supporting and amplifying your marketing activity, they're competing with it.

Oh yeah, I've noticed that when I'm given. When we have a new property owner and they give me.

This is where we're listed and I get a plethora of links and then I go to them and it's all the same copy and you kind of think this is just not, you know, it's not helpful.

This is not helping. Not at all. That's been really brilliant to sort of just clarify, you know, the. The key differences and before we end, I thought I'd ask you that.

I've got a new question that I'm asking all of my. My guests and it's the one that I'm normally asking around celebrities isn't probably as relevant for you, but I thought I'd ask sort of what the, you've touched on a few. Book the most unusual property or like the biggest celebrity claim to fame one of your properties has got.

Oh, the biggest celebrity claimed. Oh, we do have actually. We've got a tree house that the young Queen Victoria used to play in as a child. Now I think that's quite a claim to fame.

That's amazing.

And if you actually, I think if you go to our site and you type in the name of a celebrity, you might be surprised as to who has stayed in quite a lot of the places that we have there's normally. Yeah, we do have links to quite a lot of. So I think we've got another house that was owned by a member of Pink Floyd and it's where the. They used to get, the band used to gather and do recording sessions and things like that. We've actually got a house that's completely styled for, in homage to David Bowie and it's got some of his actual memorabilia in the house. And it's honestly like you're immersing yourself in the world of David Bowie. Yeah. So there's. There's like. If you type. If you went to our site and typed in your favourite celebrity, you'd probably. You might find something. You might be surprised.

Well, that's a challenge for my listeners. So. Okay, listeners, I want you to go to the Host Unusual website and we'll put the link in the show notes as always.

And actually, I think you're a dot com, aren't you? So it's hostunusual.com but go and look in the show notes.

They'll put the link there and go in and type your favourite celebrity and see what comes up.

Or if you've got a particular interest as well, you know, type that in and see, you know, if you're like a, I don't know, model aircraft buff or you're into something in particular.

Yes.

Ghost hunting or, you know, put it.

Yeah, yeah. We've got something for everyone in one of our. We've got a helicopter retreat that was actually Prince William's old search and rescue helicopter.

It's now a place you can go and stay. So it's all kinds of stuff that you probably wouldn't expect.

And then actually, you're making me think we need to have a new category, Famous Retreats of Famous People.

I'll tell you what, Adrian would love the helicopter one. I might have to spoil him with that one because he's really into aviation. He's a bit of an aviation, that and fishing.

So, like, I did look up some of the gone fishing ones because. And actually, it's like, you know, I can see that there's going to be a lot of potential for future trips, actually. So thank you for sharing those.

That's been great.

You're very welcome. Thank you for allowing me to share them.

Oh, thanks for joining us today, Nina. It's been amazing and actually it's inspired me to go and I mean, obviously I know quite a few have looked on your website a lot, but I think I'm going to go and check out a few more sort of holiday ideas.

Please do.

Excellent. Well, thanks for listening, everyone. I will be back next week with tips on how to get more repeat stays for free. So I hope you'll join me then.

And if you're listening in today with a desire to grow your direct bookings this year and or into next year and fill those pesky calendar gaps, make sure you take my free direct booking roadmap quiz to show you where you need to focus your marketing efforts. Head to my website get-fully-booked.com/quiz and you'll find the link in the show notes as well.

In the meantime, if you enjoyed this episode, I'd love it if you could leave me a review. You know how much us hosts love those five star reviews. See you next time. Thank you for listening to To Get Fully Booked with Sarah Orchard.

If you want to see if you are ready to ditch the likes of Airbnb and grow your direct bookings, put your business to the test with my free direct booking Roadmap quiz, head to my website get-fully-booked.com/quiz and let's get you more direct bookings and more profit in your pocket.